


Waiting For The Man

by teddy_parade



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: 12 Days of Christmas, Christmas, Confessions, Fluff, Klance Secret Santa 2020, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining, Secret Admirer, adashi, implied shance pining, klance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:08:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28475175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teddy_parade/pseuds/teddy_parade
Summary: Someone is hiding presents in Lance's locker, one for each of the 12 days of Christmas leading up to the end of term. It's the most interesting thing to happen that year at Galaxy Garrison, among university lectures and midterms. The person knows all of Lance's favourite things. But who is it?Lance thinks Keith knows, but he won't budge on the truth.
Relationships: Adam/Shiro (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 104
Collections: Klance Secret Santa





	Waiting For The Man

**Author's Note:**

> This is a gift for san-bika on Tumblr as part of the Klance Secret Santa 2020 Gift Exchange.
> 
> I was given some really fun prompts to work with, and I got to write Klance in my favourite setting high school / university.
> 
> Merry Christmas, I hope you enjoy your gift xx

Keith punched the combination into Lance’s locker, looking both ways before sliding in the gift he’d planned for the day. A single CD with a shiny bow stuck to the front; ‘The Velvet Underground and Nico’ had been Lance’s favourite album for as long as he could remember. 

Shutting the door again, he sped around the corner, gasping in a breath when he noticed Lance go right past him. He watched him sharply, waiting for the right moment to fall into step with his best friend in the crowded Galaxy Garrison University hallway. After he’d found what Keith had left for him, that is.

Keith ruled up his page for note-taking as their lecture began, a catch-up general Physicals class for the students who’d gone on interned missions and had missed work, right before they broke for holidays. Keith and Lance had spent the Halloween break cramped in a tiny shuttle to investigate space debris and one thing led to another; their friendship had been drowned out by Keith’s big, fat crush on Lance. Let’s just say that realising your feelings for your best friend in less than ten square meters of room for an extended period of time was less than ideal. 

As Mr. White introduced the topic, Lance’s gentle nudges into his side pulled him off his focus, eventually having to give in to his friend’s badgering. 

“What?” Kieth hissed, trying to figure out what Mr. White had just said. 

“Come on, I’ve gotten gifts like five days in a row, one for each day of the month so far and I have no idea who it could be!” Lance exclaimed. He shoved the CD that Keith had bought in his face “Look, it’s got my all favourites underlined, Venus in Furs, Femme Fatale, Waiting for the Man... How did they know?” He whispered hastily. 

Keith sighed out, hoping his annoyance could be passed off as just wanting to learn. But what really was beginning to sting was that Lance hadn’t yet singled out the one person on the entire planet who could possibly get him all of his favourite things, dead on.

Keith rolled his eyes, vision landing on the door to the class as it swung open. Keith waved as Captain Shirogane popped his head in, handing some papers to their professor with a bright smile. If it was anyone else, Keith would have guessed it to be professional, but he knew his mentor and friend; the bastard was trying to flirt with Mr. White. 

Only problem was, he wasn’t the only one trying to flirt.

“Will you cut it out?” Keith hissed, eyeing the way Lance sat up straighter, trying to look attentive and charming as Shiro offered a curt wave to the class upon his departure.

“Do you think it’s him?” Lance asked, eyes still on the spot where Shiro had stood.

“Do I think what’s him? The person giving you presents?” Keith said through a frustrated scowl. All of this would just be for naught if it just made Lance fall harder for the person that was two steps away from being family to Keith. He thought Lance was well over that crush.

“Yes, maybe. I don’t know. What do you think?” Lance replied obliviously.

“Why would he give you gifts?” Keith spat back, trying to take notes while staying quiet, still being hopelessly unable to not give Lance his full attention. 

“He knows who I am, what if he likes me?” Lance said, beginning to doodle rather than write in his notebook, tracing down little clouds and stars. Keith shook his head.

“You worked together once and then he didn’t remember your name,” he reminded. But Lance remained cemented in his theory. Oh, how close yet so far it was to the truth.

“But he knows my name now, it shows he took the time to learn it.” 

“Lance, I know Shiro; he probably just felt bad about forgetting it,” he sighed, not wanting to let Lance down, but also not wanting to continue the conversation about a crush Lance had on Shiro that he thought was long squashed by its sheer impossibility of coming to fruition. “Besides you always hang out at ours now.” Keith offered. 

“So he sees me a lot--but we never talk...probably cause you are there.” And Lance was once again off on a tangent; a long stringed theory that was only leading farther and farther from reality. 

“No, I don’t think it’s that,” Keith mumbled, having completely stopped writing at this point, turning his body to face Lance. Despite it all, he was a goner. Lance continued on his trail of breadcrumbs. 

“Okay, so what if he is giving me presents to try and get my attention… but in secret; cause doing it in public would be weird for you, cause you are like brothers,” Lance offered. Clenching his fist, Keith felt the overwhelming feeling of word vomit in his throat, knowing that if Lance kept pushing he’d blow, only five days in of twelve before the end of term. 

“It’s not Shiro,” Keith huffed instead, probably a little too loud as some people in the row in front of them turned around quizzically at the small commotion. 

“Is it cause it is basically your brother? Cause if that’s weird I'll back off--”

“Back off? Lance, he is basically a teacher,” Keith cut over him, unsure how to get it through to Lance that Shiro was not only not his secret admirer, but also that he was not the person Shiro liked at all. But that was a secret Keith had been sworn to keep to himself--and not in the ‘tell no one means I tell Lance cause he doesn’t count’ kind of way. In the ‘tell no one and that includes Lance’ level of secret. The same way Shiro was not to tell a soul about how Keith felt for Lance until Keith was ready to do it himself. 

“But he isn’t a teacher, and I’m nineteen,” Lance pressed, and Keith wasn’t sure how much he could take of this. 

“But you’ve been a student here for years,” Keith tried, knowing that in a debate of logic, he was no match for Lance who could very easily thread through much more than physical loopholes. 

“You established already that he didn’t know me until we worked together when I was 18,” Lance fired back. There it was. 

“It’s not Shiro,” Keith blurted, a little harsher than before; this only led to an already amused Lance raising a smug brow. 

“Oh, so you know,” Lance suggested and Keith felt his fists clench and his throat tighten with worry. Of course he knew; it was him after all. But the real question was what did Lance know? Had he already blown his cover, was he looking too obvious at that moment? Keith tried to relax his body, rest his eyes a little more to hide any anxiety that was slipping through. What if Lance was just stringing him along at this point?

“Ummm no.”

“Keith, you have to tell me,” Lance begged, completely unconvinced. Keith sighed, withholding any remaining composure and hope of the facade that he wasn’t cracking.

“I have to listen,” he insisted sternly. 

***

So Lance was still completely convinced that Keith knew who it was, and to his credit, he wasn’t wrong. Though it was starting to eat away at Keith when Lance tried--and failed--to guess every day who his secret admirer was. 

“So we’ve ruled out Ina, Nadia, both James and Ryan… who else could be left!” Lance complained, sliding up next to Keith by the wall that contained the day’s itinerary. 

“I don’t know, you’ll have to keep thinking,” Kith mumbled back quietly, trying to gage Lance’s reaction to what he’d left for him. 

“I got flowers, is it Pidge? She talks a lot about plants,” Lance said, presenting the bouquet of flowers Keith had put in his locker earlier that morning to him. Keith leaned back against the wall, watching Lance as his wide, sparkling eyes peered down at the bunch as if they’d give him a clue. Keith tried to hide his smile, at least Lance was happy with them.

“Do you think Pidge cares what your favourite flower is?” Keith swapped his demeanour quickly, trying to pretend like he was annoyed by Lance’s insistence. Sure it bothered him that Lance was so dense he hadn’t put the pieces together yet; but how could he stay mad when Lance was enjoying the process so much. 

“Maybe?” Lance shrugged, rolling his eyes playfully back at Keith. “Like you know what my favourite flower is,” he exasperated. 

“White Mariposa,” Keith replied flatly without a beat missed. Lance huffed. 

“That’s cause I’m holding them,” he argued. Keith watched him for a moment, an empty look on his face before shaking his head. Maybe if Lance wasn’t picking up on it yet, Keith needed to offer some help. 

“You like them cause they are Cuban and they remind you of home,” he said, raising a brow at the silence that followed, knowing that it stemmed from the fact that he was most certainly correct. “I have to go,” he then said, spinning on his heel and walking off towards his next class. 

His efforts were beginning to feel in vain. Lance would never figure it out. Yet somehow the tingling in his fingers and the heavy beating of his heart told him to persevere. The way his heart stopped altogether when Lance slung an arm around his shoulder and asked him to come in early to try and catch the person in the act. 

He’d said no, making up some excuse about having to meet a friend early the next morning and shuffling off, the feeling of Lance’s weight on him lingering. Keith cursed the way a mere touch could send him into a head spin. 

Come on Lance! Who could Keith be meeting? Since he’d started attending Galaxy Garrison he’d never been one to make friends easily. Aside from Shiro, Lance was about it. But it didn’t matter that Keith’s cover-ups were basically falling flat upon launch; if Lance hadn’t run out of possibilities on his list yet, it was safe to say he never would. 

He simply popped the next present into Lance’s locker that night after lights out. 

***

The night before Keith was going to give Lance his second last present, he gulped down the lump in his throat as Lance moved a full box of Keith’s things to a spot by the door. Lance had already packed up his stuff and was insistent on helping Keith pack up his dorm as well. 

“Of course the lone wolf of the year group snagged himself the only solo room. Teacher's pet privileges much,” Lance joked aloud to himself as he returned to help Keith fold some of the clothes that were piled on his bed. Keith smacked him lightly with a t-shirt. 

“Hey, Shiro didn’t pull any strings for me, if that’s what you’d think. And I’m not a lone wolf; I hang out with you,” he said, plopping the shirt into his suitcase among other haphazardly folded items. Lance sighed, pulling everything back out again.

“You’re hopeless,” he mumbled starting again for Keith. “Hey, maybe next year we'll be roommates,” Lance chirped. Keith’s brain instantly retreated to the image of the present he’d already put into Lance’s locker for the night. They’d see how long he still thought that. 

“Come with me tomorrow morning. It’s the end of term; I reckon I can catch the person, especially with a second lookout,” he asked. Keith went to say no, his mouth habitually forming the shape of the word.

But then he thought about the gift. How he’d planned for tomorrow to be the big reveal anyway. The next day they’d leave for break and the result didn't really matter. Or at least Keith told himself it didn’t.

His hands clammed up around the shirt he was holding, his mouth becoming dry at the thought that tomorrow would be it. Could he do it?

“Um, yeah, okay.” Keith struggled to get the words out, his voice wavering over his answer. Going along as a lookout was almost the perfect excuse to be there, as he’d have to be present to achieve the gift’s pull effect.

He dropped the shirt back onto the bed, pulling his hands back up into his hoodie to wipe them. He shuddered, although the harsh winter winds that swept across the open plains outside were cut off from them by the closed window. One more day and then he could go drink hot chocolate and drown his sorrows in warm fuzzy socks and blankets at the Shiroganes’. He’d leave behind the freezing cold desert nights and the way he was falling harder and harder for his best friend every day. Even just for a while until he was forced to face the consequences. 

***

Keith bounced on his toes a little as Lance strode hastily to his locker the next morning. 

“I bet they haven’t done it yet. I’m gonna catch them, it’s way too early,” Lance rambled to himself as they approached. He smirked back at Keith “I guess you could say I’m waiting for the man.” He wiggled his eyebrows. “If it is a man.” Keith furrowed his brows at his friend’s words. 

“Lance, you know that song is about waiting for your drug dealer, right?” Keith tried to smile but the nerves were getting the best of him. And by the blank look he received from his friend, and the way he turned back around to keep walking, it was safe to say that, no, Lance did not know that that song was about waiting for your drug dealer. 

Keith tried to listen over the pounding of his heart vibrating off his eardrums. He wanted to mention that the person, he, may have been planting the presents the night before; because he was. But he didn’t want to give himself away too easily. No, he had to wait for the perfect moment.

Keith's mind swung back and forth like a pendulum; changing between going for it, and backing out. He knew that if he didn’t he never would and that if it went bad, he’d not have to see Lance until after the break.  
But was risking his friendship worth it?

Keith’s eyes snapped open wide, realising he’d run out of time to think or decide as Lance swung his locker door open expectantly, huffing at his defeat as the day’s present was already hung neatly from the top shelf; he’d not even registered what it was yet. The air in Keith’s lungs dissolved as the pair stated at the yule plant blankly, the meaning sinking in. 

“M-mistletoe? But the person isn’t even...” Lance mumbled. Keith was out of time for thinking. He could only act. 

Surging forward Keith scrunched his eyes tight as he pressed their lips together, kissing Lance hard and holding his sides firmly. He was too scared to move back or deepen the kiss, holding his breath as he tried to figure out if Lance was kissing back or not. His blood was on fire, his mind a fuzzy blur; and he might call himself crazy, but maybe, just maybe, through the fog he’d tell himself he felt Lance move closer to him, unreluctant to continue, definitely not showing any signs of trying to get away. 

Shock or reciprocation? Keith couldn't find his answer as he finally pulled away, coming down off the balls of his feet and hoping his eyes, ducking his head as he looked up to meet Lance’s eyes. 

“It’s me,” Keith replied to Lance’s silence. His stare was so intense, his mouth agape. But what emotion laid behind it. Keith felt all the oxygen he’d been deprived of over the last half a minute return is a replenishing wave as Lance began to smile. 

Gosh, that smile…

Lance chuckled in the back of his throat as he pressed his head into his palm, running his hand through his hair as his smile grew to a dopey grin. He bit his lip with bated breath. This was good--he thought. 

“Well it’s obvious now;” Lance cooed, shaking his head “you know everything about me.”

Keith breathed out lightly, happiness washing through his entire body. “Of course, I do,” he said. “Getting to know you is my favourite thing ever,” he admitted. Lance smirked up at him. 

“Well, you’ve given me most of my favourite things, I guess the trade is only fair.” Keith raised a brow at his response. 

“Most?” He asked. What was he missing? He was sure he got everything. 

“Well, you’re my favourite.” Lance’s response turned Keith to jelly, unable to resist what would usually have him scoffing. Instead, he took a shaky step closer to his best friend. 

“Well, I kinda did just give myself to you then,” he said bashfully, feeling the heat rising on his cheeks, contrasting the calm cool feeling of relief that was still tingling in his fingertips and heart. 

“I guess so… also shiny things. I like shiny things,” Lance’s tone turned to jest as he prodded Keith’s shoulder playfully. Keith snorted, reaching into his pocket as he looked to the floor. 

Well, actually, I was gonna wait until tomorrow morning, seeing as we go home for Christmas break then…” he began, “but it’s not really a secret anymore so I can give it to you now,” he explained pulling out a small purple box.

He handed it to Lance, who took it carefully in his hands. Giving Keith a final look he opened it slowly, and apprehension instantly turned to a small gasp of delight as he picked up the small silver chain in his hand. Keith couldn’t help the grin that spread over his face as he watched Lance admire the two small charms that hung from it; a small, silver ‘K’ and ‘L’ dangled against each other between them. Keith met Lance’s gaze through the gift. 

“I love it,” he said. “But what about you?” 

“What about me--oh.” Keith's smile turned sheepish as his teeth shone through, nervously reaching a hand up to tuck his hair behind one ear. “I, um.” He mumbled as he showed off the ‘K’ and ‘L’ studs next to each other, already decorating his lobe. Lance chortled, reaching out to take the hand that was hovering now cautiously at Keith's side.

“Perfect.”


End file.
